My siblings’ social security has been hacked and was paid out to someone else for 1 year. They have stopped payments to this other person, however, it’s been three years that their case is still pending investigation and they need this money. Before the pandemic, They would go down to ss office where they were told each time that it is still in investigations and that they were not the only one going through this. They have also called the Washington DC office where they filed a complaint for them however, nothing has ever been done. What else can they do?

Hi,

Wow, I've never heard of that happening, and I worked for Social Security for 36 years. I can only imagine how difficult that would be to get straightened out after the fact. I assume that Social Security has plans for dealing with such an occurrence, but I have no idea what that would entail.

Social Security does have the capacity to make emergency payments outside of their normal computer system, though. Those types of payments are called critical payments, so if your sibling is in dire need of their benefits then he or she can ask to be paid temporarily using Social Security's critical payment system (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0302803050). If that doesn't work, the only other thing I can suggest is for your sibling to contact the offices of one of their U.S. senators or their congressional representative to ask them to intervene with Social Security. Congressional interest can sometimes result in expedited handling of a case.

Best, Jerry